Quotations

"Dostoevsky sacrificed a great deal of knowledge for a new humanity and told this new humanity his deepest secret, his last formula, his most memorable saying: 'Love life more than the meaning of life'." Stefan Zweig

"When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then.  

Who has put me here? 

By whose order and direction have this place and time been alloted to me?" 

Blaise Pascal, 'Pensees' 

"I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please." Montaigne

"In act five of Europe’s self-destruction, the US and the Soviet Union strode on to the stage like Fortinbras at the end of Hamlet. Yet, Europe was at least still the central stage of world politics throughout the cold war that followed. Europeans made history once again for a brief shining moment in 1989, but then Hegel’s Weltgeist, the “world spirit”, moved rapidly on from Berlin to Beijing." Timothy Garton Ash

"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry." Ernest Hemingway "A Farewell To Arms"